About me

This blogname was derived from the novel The Secret Life Of Saeed The Pessoptimist by the Palestinian Israeli Emile Habiby: absurdism as weapon against the (ir)realities of daily life in Palestine/Israel. (The subtitle is from a book by Dutch author Renate Rubinstein. It could as well be my motto).
My real name is Martin (Maarten Jan) Hijmans. I've been covering the ME since 1977 and have been a correspondent in Cairo. I started my 'Abu Pessoptimist' blog in January 2009 out of anger during the onslaught in Gaza. The other one, The Pessoptmist, is meant to be a sister version in English. (En voor de Nederlandstaligen: ik wilde in november 2009 een tweede blog in het Engels beginnen en ontdekte te laat dat als je één account hebt, een profiel dan meteen ook voor allebei de blogs geldt. Vandaar dat het nu ineens in het Engels is... So sorry.)

Tuesday, December 8, 2015

Tuesday Palestinian teen killed in Duheishe camp

Wijlen Malik Shain

Israeli forces shot dead a 19-year-old Palestinian during a predawn
detention raid into Duheisha refugee camp to the south of Bethlehem on Tuesday.
Medics identified the Palestinian as Malik Akram
Shahin and said he had been shot in the forehead, where the bullet
remained lodged.Witnesses said he was "left bleeding for
long before he was evacuated to the public hospital in Beit Jala, where
medics pronounced him dead.
"He was killed when large
numbers of Israeli forces stormed Duheisha camp in the early hours of
Tuesday, detaining a number of local residents and delivering summons to
others. As the soldiers broke into Palestinians' homes,
they reportedly fired live rounds, tear gas canisters, and stun grenades
"indiscriminately" through the camp's narrow alleys.
An
Israeli army spokesperson said that "overnight, a riot broke out" in
Duheisha camp, with Palestinians throwing "pipe bombs and Molotov
cocktails" at Israeli soldiers.She said the soldiers fired "warning shots" into the air to disperse them. She had no immediate information on Shahin's death.Locals
identified some of the detainees as Mustafa Atiyeh al-Hasanat, 20,
Muhammad Ali Abu Ajamiyeh, 19, Diyaa Khalil al-Jaafari, 20, and Muhammad
Ilias Sarahnah.Shortly after Shahin was shot dead, dozens
of young men rallied in the camp in protest. A Bethlehem committee
announced a halt to all business across the district and stores were
closed.
The Israeli site YNet reportes that Israeli security forces
on Tuesday abducted Bassel Abou Alya (26) from the northern West Bank, from a hotel in Ramallah, i.e. ''Area A'', where Israeli forces don't have juridsdiction or acces. Abu Alyia was arrested due to his involvement in an attempted stabbing attack on
October 30 at the Tapuach (Za'atara) junction south of BNablus in the West Bank with another
Palestinian ''terrorist'' who was killed. He was transferred into Shin Bet custody, according to YNet. Although he was wounded
by a border policewoman's fire, Abu Alya managed to flee the scene to a
Red Crescent ambulance, which evacuated him to Rafidia hospital. The
Shin Bet managed to pick up his trail using accurate intelligence. He
was arrested at a Ramallah hotel by undercover IDF troops. The arrest
went without incident.